Back in my Day

[darkknight]

"Hey, what was it like when you started playing Feral Heart?"
"Well, I'll tell you, back when-" stop!

This is what this topic is going to be about. What was it like back when you first joined game as whole? Or simply conditions you used to go through as a newbie. This is your chance to sound like a grumpy grandma or grandpa. Start a rant, be sincere, boast about a random adventure you had with a squirrel, and so on. What was is it like back in your day?

Back in my day, I joined group after group after group, and had alot of fun. I would stay up to the next morning playing the game if I had a good group of friends or new people I met online. When I was at least three weeks in, my liking for the game just grew even more. Back then, I used to get lost in the South Pole so many times. I was starting to think Atlantis and the Last Cave didn't exist because of the simple fact I couldn't find them from me getting lost at the South Pole so much. Back in my day, there was always something random happening, zombie attacks, demon wars, wolf battles with zombies, raining cats, you name it. I worked with whatever came up because, well, let's face it, fighting a zombie made out of toys is pretty darn cool. Back in my day, I used to think being purple and brown was cool until I one day just really looked at myself for a while. 

? For the subject to stay as it is and the topic being open, please do not post anything about General chat. The discussion is locked, period. This topic will not be the "new" General chat discussion in any form or fashion. I'm sure there is more to talk about. ?

[SteampunkWolfdog]

When I was young lass, (lol not really) your first character spawned in the middle of Bonfire Island, amoung the last of people running around in that tiny space, and the trolls generally being trolls. During that time I wasn't very adventurous, barely talked to anyone or ventured far out from Ficho Tunnel. My first few characters were going along with the trend and were sort of black with some bright coloured markings. My roleplaying skills were...very rusty. To pass the time, I'd walk around trying to make some friends, and when I did finally find some friends (I fell out with a lot of people xD) we'd sometimes sit and talk or if there was lots of us, we'd derp around doing silly things xD Mate centers didn't exist, so one often had random people running up to you saying "Will u b my m8?", and no wings either.
In short, that was the first few months of my FH life.

[Vespian]

During my first months of Feralheart, I won't lie that I actually found it bland and a bit boring. This was way back when your Home was set in the middle of Bonfire, there was no wings, no Adoption/Mate Centers, even the maps Lonely Cave/South Pole/Atlantis/Last Cave didn't even exist yet. I was your everyday wanderer, semi-literate floof with a very unrealistic character. The classic. Though, I rarely bothered with the socializing idealism of the game and more so spent my time wandering the maps and just exploring all that was provided. Of course, I grew bored of this and eventually began trying out roleplays. Yes, I will say it, I didn't even know what mapless, literate, long-termed, etc. even meant and I was utterly confused over the whole concept.
Fast-forwarding a little bit, but I remember the first time I came across literates, or for a more appropriate term, experienced roleplayers. I was intimidated by them, yet admired them quite a lot. That's when I began taking the habit of steady and constant observation. For the longest time, I watched from a distance as mapless, experienced roleplays took place in the public maps. I mimicked their skills, writing down many terms in a notebook that they used for me to research and go over. As time rolled on, I began experimenting with the color codes in the character creator and took up the liking to a more realistic appearance on all my characters. Around a month or so later, I began joining literate roleplays, continuing to practice with my literature and heeding any advice those who I admired would inform me with. Just like that, I fell for the game and met many great friends who I don't regret meeting. Things only got more interesting once all the maps, wings, and new Home was set.
Now, I've been lately getting involved with the community other than roleplay and still continues to observe all that's around me in-game wise. A mere summary of my Feralheart life back then to the present.

[Tearless]

Ah, yes, gather round, young'uns. -pulls out a cane and pipe-

Back in the old days when I first joined, we didn't have no fancy wings or Sky's Rim or South Pole or Lonely Cave, we had five maps and spawned straight in Bonfire and we were grateful! In fact, when I first downloaded the game and signed up, there were so few players that the first time I ever spawned, Bonfire was completely empty. Not a soul in sight and I couldn't find the portal to get out, so I ran around the island by myself for an hour or so trying to figure out how the controls worked. I don't remember how I eventually got out, I think I just found the portal at some point and made my way to Fluorite. I joined up with a bunch of people who were trying to climb the giant rocks near the stone bridge and explored because I didn't know how the whole RP thing worked, and I do recall being somewhat enamoured with the Temple of Dreams and thinking it was the coolest map ever. It was a very different game in its early days; I don't remember ever encountering a Warrior clan in the first year I was there, and there were fewer RPs, but they lasted longer and I swear there was more variety. I joined a few prides that lasted for months; there was one I was in for at least a year and a half, and it had been going for a long time before that. I dunno, something about the social dynamic was just different. Even the mapless prides lasted a long time (which is how I accidentally adopted a cub and we RPed out of the pride because it eventually got really weird, and somehow we're STILL going with a consistent plotline years later). I think most of the people there at first were from IT before it got shut down.

So yeah, that's how I remember it. Fewer, longer-lasting RPs, people actually talked to each other in local without being forced to, no wings, we still had Kovu and regular game updates... kinda miss it.

[meeeea]

Ahh, the good ol' days. -Rocks back and forth in my grandma chair.-

You spawned in the middle of Lagfire, glitching and lagging away from the crowd. These cool maps such as South Pole or Lonely cave weren't even made back then. We didn't have wings or any kind of howl actions and such. I just randomly ran around and figured out everything after a bit of powerplaying and such. >.> Kovu was there, people were on much more, not to mention amazing Role-plays snd regular updates. Mate-centers and pup-centers were a rare sight, most likely didn't exist. Good times. I miss it actually.

[Jango_Fett]

*Sits attentively beside the roaring FirePlace* What about the Rps?
Were they more Realistic or more Made-Up Fun?

[Tearless]

-puffs on pipe- Well, if I recall you could find either one... probably most of them that I saw were semi-realistic; there were elements of realism, but they usually had some twist to add interest. There were a lot more multi-species RPs as well, definitely.

[Silhouette]

Oh jeeze, I've been here since the begining, where do I start?

I'll just go with a list.

1. Spawn point was Bonfire Island, not Lonely Cave. Kinda laggy but manageable. I was happy when Lonely Cave was introduced, it forced people to disperse rather than clump when learning how to play the game for the first time, of which spawning in Bonfire did not.

2. More multi-species roleplay

3. Little to no wolfspeak, or at least not as much as now, yay!

4. A few of the  main large groups that existed in Impressive Title moved over to Feral Heart. I think Jaaku Clan [Not a warrior cat clan] made an attempted move over here or kinda-did but kinda-didnt and both they and Meurtrier Pride ended staying in IT or some kind of offshoot server? I honestly don't know what happened to them for sure so don't quote me on that. I brought Emerald Clan over from Impressive Title [again, not a warrior cat clan] to Feral Heart but unfortunately a lot of its members [including myself!] were sort of dealing with some trials of growing up [Some had to deal with harder classes in highschool, college, and in one member's case, a new baby and just did'nt have the time for it anymore.] So Emeraldclan finally died off in Feral Heart's early days after running for about 2 years or so.

5. People acctually bothered to RP different species together without it HAVING to be war-time/aggressive/etc.

6. Less emphasis on realism and more people embracing creative elements to characters and roleplays in terms of design/ideas.

7. Better map making. Now, Im NOT saying people dont make some awesome maps right now but Im a little disappointed that it seems like out of all of the good PUBLIC map makers.....I could count them on my hands. The rest of the time its like the newest map post is either "I crammed all these downloaded meshes together to the point you cant enter the map/barely enter the map and lag like crazy and its horribly disorganized" or "Look what I did, I took the oak mesh and posted it 1000 times really close together and called it a unique forest!" Just... No. Even some very simple maps I feel like crush most of these. Two of my most favorite maps by other people are Dark Mountain and Saltus Forest, both very old, very early maps and in Saltus Forest's case, it has a detailed height map.

8. People didn't act terrified to download a map or preset when its not even difficult. I know not everyone is very tech savvy but even youngsters can read directions and copy and paste.

9. There were no wings but when they DID finally come out I feel like people used them a lot more. Now people dont use them hardly at all [And I think we go back to the problem of people clinging to realism a little too tightly and not being willing to RP with other or even imagined species. They can't find a RP half the time now.]

10. Map maker's file-set up changed EIGHT BILLION TIMES. It was like with every update almost, the map set up would change and people would have to fix, remake, or re-export their maps.

11. Accessing Watermill [The map shown in the log-in screen] with all of its objects was easy. You just hit export and Watermill's portal would appear in Cape and a lot of other people would be there. Now you cant do that because if you click export you end up with a "bald" version of Watermill. No trees, no rocks, no plants. So NOW if you want to reach Watermill you have to either download or make ANOTHER map and create a portal in that map to Watermill to be able to get inside. But even then, to get out of it, you have to homepoint.

12. More people ask what the "plot of a RP" is when RPing one on one rather developing their characters on their own, like as if they HAVE to have a script to follow....Whatever happened to open free-form RP? Seems to have died down, like, a lot.

[unnbrellas]

"Tell me more grandma/grandpa!"

Lol yeah Im pretty new...but I wish I'd been here earlier!  Interesting stories...

[Warrior4ever]